The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced exponential growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs. Such scaling down has also increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advancements to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed.
Hetero-integration of dissimilar semiconductor materials, for example, III-V materials epitaxially grown on silicon or silicon-germanium substrate, has been introduced in an effort to increase the functionality and performance of field-effect transistors (FETs). Performance of devices fabricated using a combination of dissimilar semiconductor materials, however, depends on the quality of the resulting structure. Specifically, limiting dislocation defects is important in a wide variety of semiconductor devices and processes, because dislocation defects partition an otherwise monolithic crystal structure and introduce unwanted and abrupt changes in electrical properties, which, in turn, results in poor material quality and limited performance. Therefore, there is a need for a semiconductor structure and methods thereof to address these concerns for enhancing performance and reducing dislocation defects.